How do food producers measure the exact amount of carbs, proteins, vitamins etc. in a piece of food?
In: Biology
Food scientist here. There are different tests for every type of component in food. For instance, protein is typically measured using the Kjeldahl or Dumas method, which does measure the nitrogen in food then uses a conversion factor to get from nitrogen to protein. Typically, the only nitrogen in food is from amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein. Proteins, water, ash (vitamins and minerals), and lipids (oils and fats) are measured in food. Then, you take 100 – the sum of those to get the % that is carbs. There is no simple way to measure the entirety of carbohydrates because they are so complex (sugars, starches, fibers, etc).
All in all, food is typically very complex and heterogeneous, so it is difficult to analyze. There are many tests that you have to do to fully analyze food. But I remember in my food analysis class in grad school, for our final project we got an unknown amount of food and had to analyze it over the course of two weeks to create an accurate nutrition label for it. Fun stuff.
Edit: reading the comments, nobody has any idea how to analyze food
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